The white house on the right is the Elijah Iles House, which is in its third location, and is open to the public. The "flashlight" in the background is the Hilton Hotel, formerly Forum 30, at Seventh and Adams.

Congratulations on avoiding the wrecking ball. I always love a good house moving. (More photos from yesterday. Somewhat related: They moved Alexander Hamilton's house in New York City earlier this year.)

Comments

I've never seen a house that large moved. Amazing. For historical preservation, I can see why this is done. I can't imagine why ordinary citizen would do it, though, and yet it's not all that uncommon. Seems to me to be such a massive headache.

It does seem at times there's a desperation here to hang on to the past. Of course, a lot of people have made their living in the industry of Abraham Lincoln. Preserving these old places prevents the the usual alternatives Springfield has become so good at producing: New buildings with really bad or no architecture and surface parking lots. Well sort of. Soon the lot this building was on will be a surface parking lot.

Love "the flashlight" in the background. I remember seeing that when my dad and I stopped in Sprinfield a few years ago and thinking, no wonder people think "modern architecture" is hideous.

In those remote days when I was a lad, there was an old Lutheran church at a country crossroads, Sauk Trail and Cicero, just outside the hamlet of Richton Park (1960 population: 850). In the early '60s, there was a local observance of the fact the church was a century old. Immediately thereafter, the congregation decided to tear it down to build a new one. The thing was saved by moving it four or five miles to a spot out in the woods near where we lived. It was amazing to me that such a thing was possible. The building's still there -- though now it's used as a visitor's center for a forest preserve.

Yeah, I just looked up the population of Richton Park. 12,500 or so. It is less wholesome than it looks, though one of my fondest memories is the A&W at Governor's Highway and Sauk Trail, with the old cemetery next door.

Also, the Illinois Central's commuter line used to end at Richton Park, and the station was sort of a picturesque wreck.

I Moved my house . The building was of 1946 construction and remains 55’ long by 34’ wide. The structure weighed some 225 tons (450,000#), roughly half a million pounds, the two story, brick veneer structure had to be moved some 165’ from its original lot to another contiguous property and raised some 20’ higher than it had been. It was under the supervision of wolfe you can see the picture of their move in their site http://wolfehousebuildingmovers.com/